Marina at Lime Saddle still open though ramp there is closed

The drought is certainly having an effect at Lake Oroville, with only two boat ramps available for launching.

According to California State Parks maintenance supervisor Shawnee Rose, the open ramps are the lower spillway boat ramp, stage two, and the Bidwell Canyon Boat Launch stage three ramp.

Rose said both ramps are paved or concrete.

She added that Foreman Creek Lake Access is open for "car top boat launching" of kayaks, canoes or small fishing boats that can be carried into the water.

Even though the ramp at Lime Saddle has been closed since Dec. 30, it will be business as usual at Lake Oroville Marina, at least for now, said marina General Manager John Prieto.

"Currently, we still anticipate some inflow, although we expect the pool to be not quite as full as previous years," Prieto said.

He knows there won't be any snowpack, but is still gearing up for a regular summer.

He said the season got off to a good start at the end of November and beginning of December.

"If you'll remember, last Nov. 29 the rain started," he said. "We started to have pretty good rains by Dec. 1. We had 122,500 cubic-feet-per-second coming in three days later."

Those rains caused the boat ramp to be submerged under water at a rate of about one foot every nine minutes, Prieto said.

He said if some late-season rains come in, they will be able to hold the water for late summer recreation, noting that the lake elevation can change drastically from one day to the next.

"In California, (rainfall) fluctuates so radically from one season to the next as far as the winter season is concerned," he said, noting that two years ago, March, April and May brought in a lot of rain that filled the lake.

The water collected from earlier rains tends to get released due to the state water project, he said.

Prieto said he knows there's a drought, but he still has to be ready for when the season kicks off.

"We'll take what's left in the pools as we go through the summer," he said.

In the chain of command, the marina at Lime Saddle answers to California State Parks, which in turn answers to the California Department of Water Resources.

Prieto said the departments are discussing the lack of moisture and its effect on recreation at the marina and throughout the state in general.

He said the agencies will release a report about their findings sometime in the near future, but he didn't know when.

In addition to the low lake levels, Prieto said the warm weather makes for more active wildlife.

"Rumor has it because of the lack of cold weather, the bears aren't hibernating. We look at the mud to see if there are any tracks," he said.

While they haven't spotted any bear tracks, he said there are some bald eagles flying around.

"A pair with a juvenile are up there flying right now," he said.

In the meantime, Prieto is hoping for some wet weather as summer season nears.

According to AccuWeather, the next foreseeable precipitation will hit toward the end of January.

"We're still in business," Prieto said. "The boat launch ramp is temporarily closed, but the marina is still open."